Fox News tweets death of President Obama
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Followers of Fox News trust America's most-watched cable-television network to bring them the biggest breaking stories covering critical issues that other media organisations fail to spot. Who can forget: "Lindsay Lohan vs Gravity: Is Actress Jeopardising Comeback With Bra-Free Lifestyle?"
But a Twitter account operated by Fox News broke a startling story early yesterday morning that seemed too sensational even for the Rupert Murdoch-owned network – that Barack Obama had been shot dead while campaigning at a restaurant in Iowa.
Fox News was quick to issue a statement explaining that the "malicious" tweets were a hoax by online hackers and not the work of its own journalists. FoxNews.com said: "Hackers sent out several malicious and false tweets claiming that President Obama had been assassinated. Those reports are incorrect, of course, and the President is spending the July 4 holiday with his family."
The first of six false tweets appeared on the @foxnewspolitics Twitter feed at about 2am on American Independence Day and said that Mr Obama "has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead".
The last tweet was more light-hearted, congratulating Joe Biden on becoming the new president: "In such a time of madness, there's light at the end of tunnel."
An unknown individual or group calling themselves The Script Kiddies appeared to claim responsibility for hacking the @foxnewspolitics account on its own Twitter feed, which was later suspended. The posts remained in place for more than eight hours.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments